Estes Space Shuttle Columbia Build #1385, Part 13, Sanding Between White Coats

One way to get a smoother final finish is light sanding between coats.

You can sand the Ace Premium Enamel 30 minutes after spraying.

Recoat times are still within one hour then after 48 hours.

Here's the Shuttle after light sanding the first white coat.

Closeups below will show the sanding areas of concern.

Here's some rough areas on the cardstock side/wing glue fillets. Knock off the high points between the white under coats. 

I use 800 grit when dry sanding between coats. Some 400 grit sandpapers will show scratches under your paint.

Enlarge the picture to see some areas around the nose cone "notch" recess. These were slightly raised areas in the plastic that needed to be smoothed out before more paint.

Another example of glue fillet ridges around the launch lug.

Sand and knock down the ridges. It's not necessary to sand down the fillets, just the ridges that were left after the glue dried.

Around the raised flap - 

Forward of the flap were some glue dots that were carefully shaved off then lightly sanded.

It's hard to get good paint coverage with a painting wand dowel slid into the engine mount. 

First to paint just the end - 

A expended engine was slid into the mount. Notice the casing isn't slid all the way in. This allows no paint to get inside and easier to remove the casing without touching much wet paint.

For now, only spray the back end of the engine mount.

Remove the engine casing without touching the wet paint on the model. You might get a bit of paint on your fingers from the back end - the front of the model had no new paint yet.

While holding onto the unpainted front end of the model, Slide in a painting wand with engine casing set on the front of the dowel. Now you can paint the rest of the model.